Accrediting Agency to Review Gordon College

The New England Association of Schools and Colleges’ Commission on Institutions of Higher Education will review whether Gordon College is violating standards of the accrediting agency reports the Boston Globe.

Gordon College president D. Michael Lindsay was among 14 religious leaders who signed onto a letter sent to the Obama administration July 1 seeking an exemption from employment discrimination regulations based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

According to the College Fix, Lindsay wrote a personal message to students, faculty and supporters of the school explaining his position on the exemption.

“Signing the letter was in keeping with our decades-old conviction that, as an explicitly Christian institution, Gordon should set the conduct expectations for members of our community,” Lindsay wrote. “Nothing has changed in our position,” he said, adding that “Gordon has also been a place where constructive and respectful dialogue takes place.”

In the American Thinker, columnist Geoffrey Hunt asserts Lindsay need not “underestimate” the influence of those who support religious liberty and freedom of expression.

“Time is ripe for Gordon College, its collegiate peers, and thousands of faith-based institutions to stop apologizing,” wrote Hunt. “Once upon a time, religious liberty was a non-negotiable central tenet to this republic. Act like it still is. And quit asking for permission to exercise our most fundamental and inalienable right.”

Last week the City of Salem, Mass., terminated its contract with Gordon College for the use of the city-owned Old Town Hall due to non-compliance with the city’s non-discrimination ordinance of homosexuals.